the daily musings ... of faith and culture, of life and love, of fun and games, of a song and dance man, who is keeping his day job.

Monday, January 30, 2006

Scandal: Beyond "Film at Eleven"

Mark Serrano was an innocent victim to a pervert in a Roman collar named Father Hanley. Without actually being convicted due to the statute of limitations, Hanley was defrocked anyway. So what does he do? He moves back into the old New Jersey neighborhood so he can pass fliers with his picture on them, warning them all that he's a sex offender. What good is it doing? Well, WCBS-TV got a few minutes of footage on the confrontation between Hanley and Serrano's dad.

I don't know who the bigger idiot is; the defrocked priest for moving back into the neighborhood, the bishop who effectively removes any oversight, or any one of the people who made a scene for the cameras (something the mainstream media is very good at taking and running with, as leaders of the so-called "Voice of the Faithful" learned very early on, or so they told me). Exploiting a bereaved father's agony doesn't help anyone -- not the predatory addict, not the father, and certainly not the victim.

Guys like that should get the hell outa town and build a cabin in the woods somewhere. The hermetic life would be the best thing for them, not to mention the rest of us. They could do some teleworking job on the computer where no one has to know their background, plant their own garden, maybe raise a few chickens. But most of all, it would be a life of penance, something novel for a generation of slaves to the suburbs. (God forbid we should live beyond spittin' distance of a Wal-Mart.)

Which includes most of our bishops, and the minions who inhabit their payrolls.